


Tool

by forgetme



Category: Naruto
Genre: Dubious Consent, Id Fic, M/M, Something Made Them Do It, Teacher-Student Relationship, Work In Progress, suspend your disbelief
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-14
Updated: 2016-11-25
Packaged: 2018-08-08 17:58:37
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,417
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7767640
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/forgetme/pseuds/forgetme
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It is an old tradition.<br/>The way they handle this situation says a lot about the teacher – and about the student.<br/>This is an ancient test for you and your team, a rite of passage. If you fail, your career as shinobi is over.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

_It is an old tradition – tried and true._

_The way they handle this situation says a lot about the teacher – and about the student._

_This is an ancient test for you and your team, a rite of passage. If you fail, your career as shinobi is over._

***

Gai stared at the official summons in his hands. Handwritten on delicate rice paper, stamped with the ANBU office’s stamp of approval. Not the Hokage’s personal stamp though, and no signature from the Godaime. Instead there was the red dissolving leaf, the ink so fresh it stained Gai’s thumb when he brushed over the mark. His stomach was in knots, clenching the way it only did just before the seventh gate when he knew what pain would come to sweep him up and push him down, almost drowning him every time.

The word running through his head mixed with those on the paper.  Crisp official language.

_Maito Gai (010252 ), jōnin, your mission will be to fulfill the following task as prove of your loyalty to Konohagakure. You will have seven days to carry out the assigned task with one of the subjects currently serving as your subordinates on your squad (Team 9) – Hyūga Neji  (012587),  jōnin, Tenten (012573), chūnin, Rock Lee (012561), chūnin._

_Within the aforementioned timeframe one of your subordinates will accompany you to the following address—_

His mind ablaze with panic Gai skimmed over the name of the street and number of the building, an inconspicuous apartment block, he was sure. Just like back then. It was exactly the same.

If he was holding this letter in his hands, that meant his students had already gotten their instructions. Gai bit down hard on his lower lip, drawing blood. They’d waited for him to go on a mission and they’d used this time – _bastards._

 Neji, Tenten and Lee, they’d think it was a joke at first – just like he, Genma and Ebisu had. There’d been rumors of course, floating around at the academy and hushed whispers exchanged between genin squads about special training and secret tests, but you didn’t really believe in it, not until it happened to you and after you weren’t allowed to ever speak about it – not that anyone would have wanted to.

***

Gai had been sixteen years old, he’d just made jōnin and his genin squad was on the verge of being disbanded. Genma was training for ANBU and Ebisu was teaching his first classes at the academy. Gai was the youngest and the first to reach the highest rank and Chōza-sensei was proud and took them all out for dinner at the Yakiniku place where he drank a little too much and told them he was engaged to be married.

They didn’t have training the next day and while he was doing his workout by himself, Gai got his letter by messenger. He read it once, twice, thrice, then he ran to Ebisu’s place, halfway there collided with Genma who’d come from the opposite direction. In Genma’s hand was an identical letter. They compared. Gai went so far as licking at the ink to see if it tasted the same.

“It’s a prank, right? I mean it’s gotta be… A pretty shitty one too,” Genma said. “Like that could really be a mission. To do it with your sensei? That’s fucked up.”

“Sexual intercourse,” Ebisu read, his nose wrinkling. “This is distasteful, but I cannot imagine any of our peers taking the time and effort to do something like this. What would be the point? More likely, this really is a test, a mind game much like during the chūnin exams.”

“I’m already a jōnin!” Gai exclaimed. He puffed up his chest, trying to look proud and confident despite the sick feeling in his stomach. “Why would they need to test me again?”

“You’re a knucklehead, you only passed because of your taijutsu. I could see them trying to do some kind of twisted psych eval or IQ test.”

“We should speak to Chōza-sensei; I’m sure he will clear this up,” Ebisu said quickly before a fight could break out between his teammates.

***

“I have to have sex with one of you. You determine which one it will be. Those are the rules.” Chōza-sensei looked stricken as he spoke. He wouldn’t meet their eyes. “Don’t go thinking this is a trick, a theoretical problem, no,  whichever one of you is chosen will have to go through with it. Otherwise we all fail. Yes, I am also being tested here. A jōnin-sensei cannot be too close to his students. You are my subordinates, not my children, not my friends…” He swallowed audibly. “…not my lovers.”    

He stopped. A heavy silence descended on them, but for once Gai didn’t feel strong enough to break it.

After a few heartbeats Chōza-sensei added somewhat helplessly, “A shinobi’s body is a tool for his village, remember? No matter how unpleasant the task, as a ninja you have to be able to make your body carry it out. This is about self-control as much as it is about loyalty.” His hands, Gai noticed, were balled into fists at his sides. “You have until Friday. The address is on your letter. One of you has to meet me there at seven pm. Be on time. Dismissed.”

***

“He can’t be fucking serious! He wants to fuck one of us? And, I mean, there’s not even a girl on our team!”

Gai said nothing. Sitting cross-legged on the floor of his one-room apartment, he stared glumly at his feet.  His mind was completely blank.

“You saw him. Sensei doesn’t _want_ to do this. It is a test. It is as he said, as shinobi we belong to the village, in body and mind. It isn’t enough to just say these things. We have to prove it. We have to be ready to do the unthinkable when it is asked of us.”

“I don’t think I even could,” Genma groaned, “I mean, get it up for sensei.” He shuddered. “Could you?”

Ebisu’s cheeks turned crimson “That… That is not the point!”

“Except it kind of is. Unless you think it’s enough to just lie down and spread your legs?” Realizing what he’d just said, Genma blanched and pressed a hand over his mouth. “I think I’m gonna puke.”

Gai looked up at this, having come to a conclusion. “If it’s just about enduring pain, I can do it,” he said firmly. Both his teammates gaped at him, but beneath the shock and horror, Gai thought he could see a glimmer of relief in their wide eyes.

***

“Somehow I knew it was going to be you.” His mouth drawing into a grim pale line, Chōza-sensei sat down heavily on the wide bed that took up most of the otherwise nondescript room.  Gai let the door fall shut behind him and shoved the letter with the address that had brought him to this place into his vest pocket.

“I’m not worried, sensei!” he declared as he took one brave step closer to his teacher.

“I am,” groaned Chōza-sensei and buried his face in his hands.  “You’re sixteen years old.” Gai heard him mumble from somewhere under his red mane.

“I trust you, sensei,” he said weakly, his step faltering as he picked up the strong scent of alcohol emanating from the Akimichi.

“If it’d been Genma or Ebisu… you can’t even do a proper henge… how am I supposed to…?” Shaking his head, Chōza interrupted himself. “I’m sorry,” he slurred, “maybe I should do a henge for you? No? Maybe the best thing would be to do this like training. Just get it over with quickly.”

Gai nodded. His heart was pounding in a way that made him suspect his teacher could actually hear it. It took everything just to keep from flinching when Chōza-sensei’s hand closed around his biceps.

***

Gai didn’t like to dwell on what had happened after that. On some level he was grateful to his teacher. It had been quick and the pain had been manageable. But afterwards they hadn’t talked and even now their relationship was strained. They greeted each other when they met, they made polite conversation, but the truth was team Chōza had disbanded the day they passed this test.

What had happened to them, it couldn’t happen to team Gai! He couldn’t allow it! Finally, Gai understood how his teacher must have felt back then… Sick to his stomach, like he wanted to cry…

He couldn’t do this to one of his students. Tenten… Neji… or… _Lee_. Just thinking their names felt like a hot knife sliding into his abdomen.

They’d fought so hard to become the splendid shinobi they were. Gai groaned, pulling on his hair until his scalp burned. Shouldn’t he have known this was coming?! Shouldn’t he have been prepared?!

He’d spent all this time trying to forget that night, pushing it away. He was a coward! He’d failed his team!

Gai was still standing in the hallway of his apartment building where the messenger had surprised him. He hadn’t moved a millimeter since the letter had been thrust at him.  He had to—

“Gai-sensei!” The shout rang out at the same time that the entrance door to the building was flung open. Light spilled into the dim hallway, lending the dust motes dancing in the air a golden gleam.

Lee and Tenten burst inside. “Don’t shout, the neighbors will complain,” Tenten chastised as she stepped aside to make room for Neji who was following a few steps behind.

Lee saw him first, his eyes going wide with joy, forgetting for a moment the reason they had come to seek him out, Gai guessed, as his student ran up to him.

“You’re back from your mission!”

Gai nodded dumbly. His dry mouth could not seem to produce his usual youthful greeting. Of their own volition his eyes had latched onto the white square in his student’s hand.

“I’m so glad you’re here. We got this strange letter, sensei…” Tenten held hers up as she walked closer. “It’s… It’s just really weird.” Her lips twitched into a forced smile that was too heavy to hold. It slipped; her eyes were pleading with him to laugh and tell them all was well.

Wordlessly, Gai held his door open for them to enter. Lee still had a spring in his step, Tenten shrugged awkwardly, but Neji shot him a look that seemed able to peel layers off him and reach right into his core.

With shaking hands Gai closed the door behind them all.


	2. Chapter 2

They were sitting on Gai’s sofa like little ducklings, all in a row. Lee was sipping his orange juice, Tenten and Neji had placed their drinks on the couch table in front of them where they perspired in silence, much like Gai himself.

He’d taken their letters, glanced at them perfunctorily because he knew already what they said, and then had no choice but to look them in the eye.

“This is some kind of misunderstanding,” Lee said, smiling his trusting smile. “Somebody made a mistake…?”

Neji shook his head. “The official ANBU seal is on it. I asked my uncle about it.”

That gave Gai pause and Tenten, who’d seemed about to say something, closed her mouth without making a sound.

Lee gasped. “You showed this to your uncle? Why didn’t you tell us before? What did he say?”

“That it’s real and that I should go talk to my teacher.”

Hyūga Hiashi. Gai could easily picture the head of the Hyūga clan examine the seal with narrowed eyes. Hiashi would know immediately. He was an expert where the rigid rules of the village were concerned, the sacrifices that had to be made.

“But it can’t be real! That’s nuts! We can’t… do _that_ … with Gai-sensei! That’s just _gross_!” A nervous giggle escaped Tenten’s lips. “No offense,” she mumbled with a guilty glance at Gai.

“If it’s a mission – As shinobi we have to fulfill our missions, no matter what they are, you know that.” Neji, he could be cold and hard when he needed to be. Gai was never really sure if this was a remnant of the arrogant boy he used to be or something true to his nature, the person he was at his core. He didn’t like this disillusioned voice because it made Neji sound so much older than his years.

Next to Neji, Lee had gone rigid. “Gai-sensei?” he asked, sounding so lost that Gai wanted to wrap his arms around his student and hold him tight. But he couldn’t, not now.

“It is real,” he said instead. “It’s a test that most squads have to pass after their members have reached a certain age and cleared certain milestones. It’s also meant to be an evaluation exam for the jōnin leader of the squad.” Gai took a deep breath before he continued. “When I was your age, my team faced the same trial.” Having spoken the words for the first time in his life, Gai felt a cold silence descend on the room.  His three beloved students were staring at him as though he was a stranger, someone they’d never seen before. Gai swallowed. Nobody knew this about him – except for the other members of team Chōza of course, but they’d never told anyone. It was like a pact, the ANBU seal and all it represented had burned itself into their hearts.

Not even Kakashi…

His most trusted friend couldn’t help him with this, Gai knew. Kakashi had never faced this trial. After all, by the time his rival was sixteen, his whole team was already dead. No matter how much Gai longed for his advice, he couldn’t ask. Besides, the ANBU seal forbade it anyway. Neji shouldn’t even have consulted his uncle.

A deadly silence had fallen over his students. All three of them sat very still, neither of them looking directly at Gai. Only Tenten’s eyes darted up at him every few seconds.

“Then,” she mumbled, ashen-faced, “one of us…?”

“What happens if we refuse, Gai-sensei?” As always, Lee cut right to the heart of the matter. Gai had to swallow prideful tears even as he shook his head.

“But Tsunade-sama would never ask us to do anything like this! If we talk to her--”

“This has nothing to do with the Hokage, am I right, Gai-sensei?” Neji interrupted Tenten. His pale eyes fixed on Gai’s face. As usual he spoke with calm certainty and the hint of challenge.

Though his heart was defiant, Gai nodded. “This order comes from Danzō-sama. It does not concern our Hokage.”

“What? If it’s not the Hokage’s order, then we shouldn’t have to obey!” Tenten’s face was flushed with anger now. Her fist came down on the table with a thud and a rattle as their drinks jumped and liquid sloshed.

“It’s not that simple,” Neji said evenly.

“The Hokage does not have absolute power. There is also the council. And Danzō-sama.” Danzō-sama’s cold measuring glance in the hallway of the Hokage Mansion that time. _You lack it._ When Gai had begged to serve him… Maybe if he spoke to the old man again…  “If we ignore their orders we won’t be able to serve the village any longer.”

“But that is not fair!”

“Shinobi are the tools of the village. Fairness has nothing to do with it. You wanted to become a true shinobi, Lee, you should have known what that meant.”

Lee bit his lip to keep it from trembling, but the tremor travelled into his shoulders and his fists, which he jammed into his thighs. Gai hated to see him like this, just like he hated to see Tenten’s face so drained and hopeless, to hear Neji’s voice filled with ancient bitterness.

This could not go on!

“ _Neji_. Being a shinobi also means never giving up! I won’t allow this. I won’t accept it. I will personally go to Danzō-sama and make him rescind his order! I will do whatever it takes!”

“Gai-sensei!” With a shout of joy, Lee leapt off the couch, arms raised in preemptive victory. “If you go there, I know things will turn out okay! I believe in you!”

“It’s better than doing nothing, I guess.”

“Tenten, you have to have more faith!”

“Just do everything you can, sensei, please.”

“I will!” Gai looked at Neji, but his face was completely blank.

“…”

“Trust me,” he said, putting all his heart into his words, “I will fix this.”

***

Three hours later, Gai was still at home, trying to come up with a plan on how to approach Danzō-sama. He hadn’t made any progress since his students left, but he was not ready to give up. The pure faith burning in Lee’s eyes had given him confidence, whenever his heart faltered, he recalled the image of his student’s face and went back to the task at hand.

Only when there was a knock on his door did Gai finally look up from the cursed letter on the table in front of him.

He got up slowly, wondering who might visit him at this late hour. But then he opened the door and all of a sudden, he didn’t even know if he was surprised. Neji stepped into his apartment, walking past Gai without waiting for an invitation. He looked as disaffected as ever, calm, collected, not a hair out of place.

As soon as Gai had closed the door, Neji spoke.

“Sensei, your determination honors you, but we both know that it won’t change anything. Let’s not be naïve about this. I know what I have to do, and so do you.”

“Neji!”

“Tell them that you did what you promised and that it worked. They’ll never have to know.”

How could Neji be so matter of fact about this? He leaned there, against the wall, his arms folded across his chest, his eyes boring into Gai’s. This was a mission to him, like any other.

“No! I won’t have you do this! I told you, I will go to Danzō-sama. When he sees my youthful determination, he will reconsider!”

Neji huffed a toneless laugh. “It will change nothing,” he said. “You said so yourself. It was the same when you were young.”

Gai did not grit his teeth at the insinuation that his youth was a thing of the past. Instead he glared at Neji, who merely looked exasperated.

“We have been given a mission. As jōnin, we know what that means, Gai.”

_Gai._ Being addressed so casually by his student for the first time rubbed him the wrong way, though apparently Neji thought he had earned the right. They were the same rank now, but Gai was still Neji’s senior with more than a decade between them. By the time Neji was born, Gai’d been a chūnin; he’d fought in a war and made jōnin before this boy ever even set foot in the academy.

“Neji,” he said, swallowing that flare of annoyance as he recalled the child his student had been not too long ago, a boy who only had arrogance to shield himself from loneliness. “Look at me. A young man in the springtime of his youth should not waste his first precious love on something like this.”

A faint trace of pink on Neji’s cheeks confirmed Gai’s suspicion, and yet he did not back down. “It’s the mission.”  Said with such bleak determination that for a second the image of Hyūga Hizashi flashed before Gai’s eyes. Though that could not be right, Gai had barely known the man and it was said that Neji’s father had gone to his death with a smile on his lips, not such a blank face, edged only with the slightest hint of sadness.

Gai moved closer to his student and Neji held his ground, his back against the wall, but his posture relaxed, his expression cool, sizing Gai up the way Kakashi did sometimes, like they had never met before.

There was no flinch when Gai put his hands on Neji’s shoulders, not even a twitch, and that display of confidence and trust would have made Gai smile under other circumstances.

“Neji, you are my beloved student. I would never defile you like that.”

Neji’s reply in a hushed voice, “You’re wrong to think your touch could do that to me.”

Then he slipped out of Gai’s loose grasp and was gone before Gai could even begin to think of an answer to that.


End file.
